Soon after a new epilepsy drug hit the market in 1996, doctors noticed something unexpected: Patients using the anti-seizure medication suddenly began losing weight -- rapidly.

That chance observation has led to tantalizing new insights into the underlying reasons why some people overeat and have such a hard time shedding pounds, and the provocative question of whether food can be an "addiction."

Fans of abstinence had better be sitting down. "Saving yourself" before the big game, the big business deal, the big hoedown or the big bakeoff may indeed confer some moral benefit. But corporeally it does absolutely zip. There's no evidence it sharpens your competitive edge. The best that modern science can say for sexual abstinence is that it's harmless when practiced in moderation. Having regular and enthusiastic sex, by contrast, confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female. (This assumes that you are engaging in sex without contracting a sexually transmitted disease.)

I've created a new mailing list, fsp-triangle, to help Free State members in the Triangle region of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) recruit new members, and plan and coordinate the move to New Hampshire.